ANAMIKA MISHRA, a multi-lingual aspiring poet and
writer, comes from Birjung, Nepal. A graduate in English literature from
Pokhara University, she has recently started writing and contributing to several
online magazines and national dailies, working alongside as a teacher. She
blogs at http://anamikamishra.wordpress.com.

BEN GRONER III (Nashville, TN), recipient of Texas
A&M University’s 2014 Gordone Award for undergraduate poetry, has work
published in Appalachian Heritage, Third Wednesday, New Mexico Review,
Fourth & Sycamore, Texas Poetry Calendar, and elsewhere. You can
see more of his work at bengroner.com/creative-writing/

Perhaps no more than four or five,
this Nepali child frowns nervously
up at the ping*'s rope and Bamboo frame,
unsure if the watchful smile
on his Father's face,
is one of joy, or madness!

But freedom slowly dawns
on his opening mind and
tentatively loosening his body,
he leans back, swinging
into a wide, grinning arc,
full of Dashain* delight.

Accepting this flight
of temporary freedom,
he looks admiringly anew
at his Father's face,
and shares the confident smile
he just inherited.

**

Ping —
Nepali word for swing

Dashain —
one of the great festivals of Hindus

Transported

Standing in the carriage foyer,

two artists.

A cellist,

eyes closed in practice

on her instrument case.

And a poet, lost

in the music

of her silent rapture.

Finding his voice late in life, Chris Wardle has his heart
firmly attached to South Asia and is currently halfway through a year-long
volunteer placement in Kathmandu. This grateful British-Australian nomad or
'malang' (Urdu term), development worker and student of Permaculture is
constantly surprised and delighted by the people, places and things inspiring
his poetic outpourings.

CHRISTOPHER BARNES’ first collection LOVEBITES is
published by Chanticleer. Each year he reads at Poetry Scotland’s
Callender Poetry Weekend. He also writes art criticism which has been
published in Peel and Combustus magazines.

DON THOMPSON was born and raised in Bakersfield,
California, and has lived in the southern San Joaquin Valley for most of his
life. He has been publishing poetry since the early sixties, including a
dozen books and chapbooks. For more information and links to his
publications, visit his website San Joaquin Ink (don-e-thompson.com).

GARY BECK spent most of his life as a theater
director. He has 12 published chapbooks, 14 published poetry collections, 7
accepted for publication. He has 4 novels and 3 accepted for publication. 1
short story collection and 1 accepted for publication. He lives in NYC.

JAMES CROAL JACKSON is the author of The
Frayed Edge of Memory (Writing Knights Press, 2017). His poetry has
appeared in FLAPPERHOUSE, Yes Poetry, Serving House Journal, and
elsewhere. He edits The Mantle,a poetry journal. Find
him in Columbus, Ohio or at jimjakk.com.

River grunts and groans, as blocks of ice crack,
break apart, crush together, shatter like old timbers.
Spurred on by deep current, water struggles to be free
of long dark winter nights, bitter cross breezes,
the hungry chatter of non-migratory birds.
Movement is hatched in tiny chips that lap against
brown grass vole holes, to the splintering edges
of the more defiant blocks anchoring mid-stream.
Geese alight on banks, honk a melting chorus.
A hiker stands atop a rocky overhang,
a back-packed guide post for the warming sun.
More watery ballast, the river speeds downstream.
What is not fuel is detritus in its way.

JOHN GREY
is an Australian poet, US resident. Recently published in the Tau, Studio One
and Columbia Review with work upcoming in Naugatuck River Review, Examined Life
Journal and Midwest Quarterly.

landed close to my feet, swooping
under a parked car, I presume for a rat. I never
saw the reason, but heard the shuffle as it slid
beneath, my eyes caught its tail and then saw it
back out. We looked each other in the eye.
For a moment, I was feral.

KAREN NEUBERG lives near the water in Brooklyn, New
York. Her work has appeared in numerous journals including Canary,
Forage, Hermeneutic Chaos, Otoliths, Really System, and S/tick. Her latest
chapbook, The elephants are asking, is forthcoming from Glass Lyre
Press in December 2017. Links to her work can be found at karenneuberg@blogspot.com

MICHAEL LEE JOHNSON lived ten years in Canada during
the Vietnam era. Today he is a poet, freelance writer, amateur photographer,
and small business owner in Itasca, Illinois. Mr. Johnson published
in more than 989 publications, his poems have appeared in 34 countries, he
edits, publishes 10 different poetry sites. Michael Lee Johnson, Itasca,
IL, nominated for 2 Pushcart Prize awards for poetry 2015/1 Best of the Net
2016/and 2 Best of the Net 2017.He also has 138 poetry
videos on YouTube. He
is the Editor-in-chief of the anthology 'Moonlight Dreamers of Yellow Haze' and 'Dandelion in a Vase of
Roses'.

MICHAELEEN KELLY is an emerita professor of
Philosophy at Aquinas College in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Her poetry has been
published in Blue Collar Review, Melancholy Hyperbole, Main Street Rag
Anthologies, Dunes Review and Greywolf Press. She is a two-time winner of the
Kent County Dyer-Ives prize for poetry.

SALONI KAUL, author and poet, was first published at
the age of ten and has been in print since. As critic and columnist Saloni has
enjoyed forty years of being published. Saloni Kaul's first volume, a fifty
poem collection was published in the USA in 2009. Subsequent volumes include
Universal One and Essentials All. Most recent Saloni Kaul poetic production has
been published in Tipton Poetry Journal, Misty Mountain Review, Inwood Indiana,
Mad Swirl , FIVE Poetry, The Voices Project, The Penwood Review, Mantid
Magazine, Haikuniverse, Blue Pepper, Sentinel Literary Quarterly, Cabildo
Quarterly, AJI Magazine, Scarlet Leaf Review, River Poets Journal, Belle Rêve
Literary Journal ,Taj Mahal Review, Verbal Art, Poetry Pacific, Ink Sweat And
Tears and Military Experience And The Arts (As You Were : The Military Review)
. Upcoming publication acceptances include Blueline, The Penwood Review,
Cabildo Quarterly , Scarlet Leaf Review and Indiana Voice Journal .

TODD MERCER won the Dyer-Ives Kent County Prize
for Poetry (2016), the National Writers Series Poetry Prize (2016) and the
Grand Rapids Festival Flash Fiction Award (2015). His digital chapbook, Life-wish
Maintenance, appeared at Right Hand Pointing. Mercer's
recent poetry and fiction appear in The Drabble,Eunoia Review,
The Lake, Peacock Journal, and Vending Machine Press.